fall craft

Since the painting was such a success, I've decided that I need to find activities that keep Kyalo busy, but are also things I can help with/figure out/supervise.  There's a LOT on the internet that truly astonishes or overwhelms me.  I like to keep it very simple around here.

I came across this post for a salt dough leaf impression and thought it looked like a good -- and doable, and affordable -- activity.  I'd never made salt dough before, but I thought it couldn't be too hard.  And I knew Kyalo would enjoy it.

The general idea is to make the dough, stamp a leaf into the dough to make an impression, bake it for a few hours, and then, when cool, let the kid color in the leaf's impression.  I also had the idea that this could be a nice little gift for Grandma, and Kyalo was keen to 'make sumpting Grandma.'

It was a great activity, but I don't think Grandma's getting her gift for a while.

This was pretty easy to throw together, and I really let Kyalo do most of the work.

First there was stirring. . .

then kneading. . .

 there wasn't quite enough flour on the dough; needed a pinch more, of course

 doesn't he look professional??

(sorry for my voice, but I thought you might like to watch him in action.  Perhaps that's just me!)

And then there was the leafing pressing. . .

Kyalo was really into this part of the 'project.'  When I gave it to him to color, though, he scribbled a few lines on it and said, 'all done dis.'  So, he liked the manual labor of it all better, I guess. I will say that I think I didn't do this project quite right -- didn't get the leaf into the dough enough to make a good impression, and possibly didn't cook it enough -- so in the end it was kind of a fail.  But hey, Kyalo had a good time.  And he was a total floury mess when all was done.

This leaf bowl project looks like a fun thing, but I think I'll save it for next fall.

One way I know this activity made an impression on him is that a week or so later he was collected leaves, and when home, got out his play dough and pressed the leaves into it.  That was satisfying to me - to see him do it all on his own at a later date.